Cal Raleigh hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 5-3 on Friday.
Jorge Polanco and Rowdy Tellez also went deep for Seattle in the opener of a three-game series between the American League West rivals. The Mariners won for the third time in their past four games overall.
Josh Jung homered for the Rangers, who lost for the third time in four games.
With the score tied at 3-3, Polanco led off the bottom of the eighth with a liner to center, his third hit of the game. Raleigh, using a torpedo bat for the first time, launched a 1-0 cut fastball from Chris Martin (0-2) off the facade of the second deck in right field.
It was Raleigh’s 96th career homer, breaking the Seattle franchise record among players whose primary position was catcher. He moved past Mike Zunino.
Mariners reliever Carlos Vargas (1-1) got his first major league victory after throwing one scoreless inning. Andres Munoz worked the ninth for his fifth save.
The Mariners took an early 2-0 lead as Polanco and Tellez went deep to right field with one out in the first and second innings, respectively.
The Rangers cut their deficit in half in the fourth as Adolis Garcia drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on Jung’s one-out blooper into shallow right field.
Seattle got that run back in the bottom of the inning. Leo Rivas, called up from Triple-A Tacoma this week when second baseman Ryan Bliss (torn left biceps) was placed on the injured list, drew a two-out walk, stole second and raced home on J.P. Crawford’s line-drive single to left to make it 3-1.
Texas tied it in the sixth off reliever Trent Thornton. Josh Smith lined a leadoff double to left and Garcia was hit by a pitch. It appeared Thornton might get out of the jam after getting Joc Pederson to ground into a double play, but Jung hit the next pitch just out of the reach of leaping right fielder Luke Raley for a two-run shot.
Neither starting pitcher factored into the decision.
The Rangers’ Jacob deGrom struggled with his command and lasted just four innings. The right-hander allowed three runs on three hits, with four walks and four strikeouts.
Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller gave up one run on two hits over five innings, with three walks and five strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
